“White-collar” Chairwoman of a Modern Community

THE imminent establishment of a neighborhood committee in the Meiliyuan community in 2003, two years after its construction, moved Jia Yumei to resign from her five-year-long post as administrative director at a foreign company. Tired of working with figures, Jia Yumei set her sights on dealing with the public in her own community. After her successful open application for the post of social worker, Jia Yumei prepared to stand for membership of the Meiliyuan Neighborhood Committee.     

Studying Abroad

Children from middle-class families are increasingly going abroad for university or even high-school education Cai Meng graduated from a junior middle school in Beijing this year.Unfortunately,her grades in the citywide high school entrance exam were not sufficient enough to gain her entry to her dream school.Lucky for her,her parents have a backup plan:sending her to study at one of the top private high schools in the United States.Cai has spent her whole summer vacation preparing for the move with two intensive education programs:one for improving her English,and another to prepare for the U.S.Secondary     

Howl''''s Moving Castle

Story I Getting old In a flash It is a story occurring in the magic world. Sophie, who, at the wonderful age of 18, should have been dating or attending parties in fine dress just like other girls, has had to run the hat shop left her by her father on her own. She would take care of the business in the shop day after day, but she was happy, for she wished to make the best hats for her customers.     

Are Hukou Point System Fair For Migrant Workers?

In early June, Guangdong in south China unveiled a points system for the millions of farmer-turned-workers in the province hoping to settle in cities and towns. A migrant worker will be qualified to apply for urban household registration once his or her points accumulate to 60, said a document of the provincial government. At the same time, his or her spouse and minor children can also be registered.     

Chinese Immigrants in the U.S.

IF you love her,send her to New York,for there it is heaven;if you hate her,send her to New York,for there it is hell." This telling quote from A Beijinger in New York,a famous television soap opera in the 1990s,sums up the mixed feelings that Chinese immigrants have toward the U.S. Since China opened to the world in the late 1970s,increasing numbers of Chinese people have been choosing to immigrate abroad either to study or to pursue a better life.     

UNITED WE WIN

Wei Shanshan,who lives in Jianghan District in Wuhan,received a call saying there was a package for her from Kyoto,Japan.It was the 26th day of the sealing off of the city in Hubei Province,central China,which is the epicenter of the novel coronavirus disease(COVID-19)outbreak.On her way to fetch the package at the gate of her community,Wei thought to herself,maybe it is from a friend studying in Japan.But she was not sure because her friend studies in Tokyo,not Kyoto.     

Six Poems

Helen Snow passed away on January 11, 1997To commemorate this old friend of the Chinesepeople, we publish six of her poems and the intro-duction to these poems by Chinese poet Zhu Ziqi.These poems and the following article were firstpublished in the magazine Poem inJanurary,1993. From Lu Cui's letter,Helen cameto know that her poems were published and shehappily wrote to Lu Cui and Zhu Ziqi, express-ing her thanks to them. She said that this was thefirst time that her poems were translated into Chi-nese and published in a Chinese magazine, andthis was also the first time that she got remunera-tion for her poems in China. With the remunera-tion Lu Cui bought two silk blouses for her andasked a friend to bring them to her.     

College Education for Students From Needy Families

Thousands of youngsters in China feel overjoyed when admitted to an institution of higher learning, after years of painstaking studies and highly competitive entrance examinations. But Lin Xue from Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province wept for days upon admission from the China Medical University in Shenyang, the provincial capital, in 2000. Although she longed to enter the university renowned in the field of medical science education, Lin decided, painfully, to hide the admission letter from her parents and give up the rare opportunity to change her destiny. "I was fully aware that my parents could by no means afford my tuition and living expenses in college," Lin recalls. Both of her farmer parents were in poor health: her     

Physical Perfectionists

M ILLIONS of Chinese people start their sum- mer’s day with a fi ght – a battle, that is, for a place in the shade in the local park. The 72-year-old Bai Yixu is one of them. Every morning, she rises at 6am, drinks down a yo- gurt with a small cake, and rushes to her local common to per- form her daily exercises. There she meets dozens of her peers, all competing for that spot in the shade that will protect these health enthusiasts from the blazing sun. Summertime tempera- tures in Beij…     

Spare the Rod

Summer is a wonderful season for many school children.But for Sun Zhengwen,a 13-year-old girl in Qingdao,east China's Shandong Province,it was a very dark time.On July 8,just days into the holidays she jumped off a building and killed herself,leaving behind a threepage suicide note accusing her parents of violence and abuse. According to Sun's note,on the evening of July 6,her father found that she did not finish a question in her homework assignment.He slapped her on her left cheek,to which she screamed "I lost my hearing," prompting a harder slap to the right side of the face that sent her to the ground,reeling.She wrote that her parents continued to beat her until she lost consciousness,and she did not wake up until the next morning.